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Oops… tasty! Snap-by-snap recipes from my family

In my Facebook feed there have been these quick cooking videos in which the food item takes only thirty seconds from prep to plate. The ingredients are pre-measured and waiting in little glass bowls which are dumped artfully into mixing bowls and cooking dishes, and with a finger snap a casserole goes from uncooked to cooked or warm to chilled. The videos end with a piece of the finished product on a plate with a long-tined fork cutting a bite and disappearing off screen to an assumed waiting mouth. The caption appears, "mmm…tasty!"

I get so annoyed at the disappearing fork bite and the canned response that it is "mmm…tasty!" Like the audience was waiting for the verdict and is reassured by the disembodied tastebuds as to the worthiness of the recipe. And, as many of the recipes are actually haphazard combinations of cream, cheese, refrigerated pastry, butter, sugar, and a host of prepackaged sweets, it's fairly obvious that they would at least taste good if not be wholesome or original.

Yet I love the video leading up to the "mmm…tasty!" conclusion, with the neatly prepared ingredients and swift concocting, each step shown briefly.

I think I've mentioned my complicated feelings about the "mmm…tasty!" videos to a few people because I get a lot of Snapchats imitating the form, especially from Delaney. I love food posts and food snaps anyway, even when it's Micaleigh showing me despised cilantro or my mother-in-law showing me the fresh papaya they're eating daily in American Samoa, but snaps from friends showing their own "mmm… tasty!" process (or, as often happens for Delaney, "oops… tasty!") are among my favorite snaps to receive.

Sharon's snaps here show the most important part: mmm… tasty! Or, mmm… delicious!

As for her model Cassie, she's recently taken to baking pies 24/7 from what I can tell from the other side of the world. That, or she took a million different photos of the same three pies and just sends new snapchats of the pies each day. She has even started teaching other girls to make pies.

Can't talk about pie baking in this family without mentioning Micaleigh. I didn't find snaps of her pie baking process but I have a nice closeup of a promising looking pie prospect, and some enticing almost stuffed mushrooms.

Austin's snaps are usually of loose-leaf tea, but I can share his method for making a fold over Nutella fruit pocket:

From Noah I have received snaps of him baking bread, making pancakes and making dumplings. What I have saved, however, is a snap from a video of his fry dunking talent:

Snaps from Delaney range from just a funny glimpse into her cooking mentality…

…to the exuberance she has making treats and showing me the step-by-step process, either because it's a treat I love (the loaded croissants) or something she's told me about or just wants to show me.

It's gotten to the point where, when someone starts showing me their kitchen production, I start making screen shots of the mini-drama. And maybe all these snaps are the result of everyone watching The Great British Baking Show?